The talks come after a landmark ruling from the US
Supreme Court on Monday that opens the door for legalised
sports betting in the US.

LONDON - Irish bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair has confirmed
takeover talks with US fantasy sports company FanDuel.

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Paddy Power
said in a statement on Wednesday that it is "in discussions
regarding a potential combination of the Group's US business and
FanDuel to create a combined business to target the prospective
US sports betting market."

The company stressed that discussions are ongoing and a deal is
not guaranteed.

The takeover talks follows a landmark US ruling at the start of
the week that potentially paves the way for the legalisation of
sports betting. The Supreme Court on Monday overturned a 1992
law forbidding sports betting, clearing the way for
individual states to legalise the practice if they wish.

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Shares in UK bookmakers jumped on the news amid speculation that
they would quickly move to take advantage of the news. Paddy
Power Betfair, which runs sports betting shops in the UK and
Ireland, rallied as much as 12% of the news.

FanDuel was founded in 2009 in Scotland but is now headquartered
in New York. It operates online fantasy leagues for baseball,
American football, basketball, and hockey in the US. Players who
pay a fee can then compete for cash prizes and FanDuel claims to
have over 1 million registered users.

Neil Wilson, the chief market analyst at Markets.com, said in an
email: "Something like 20 US states are either ready or have
legislation in the pipeline to legalise the industry. This
constitutes a significant chance to grab market share for all the
major UK sports bookmakers and it's no surprise that we are
seeing this kind of move.

"A FanDuel tie-up would give PPB the ability to rollout ops more
quickly and scale up. It would also remove some potential local
competition."